2020 Update to my earlier review (below) and response to most recent poster questioning the Let it Grow. I’m sure the other LIG cited is fantastic, BUT: Was it in the second set, following Althea, another rarity in a second set? Did it follow a first set that was hot hot hot in the pouring rain? Was it at Red Red Rocks in a mystical fog after the rain cleared, with the band pushing all their chips in and dialing it up to 11, with eager heads trippin balls all over the place? The sum total of all this is 6 Stars, as noted by JPotts already. Simply sublime!


I'm so excited, only a couple of days until TDIH - July 28, 1982 - Morrison CO - I will never forget. I drove out with friends Dana and Fernando from college on the east coast and my buddy Al from back home in Ohio. Camped in Iowa on the way (flooding and strange trips - don't ask) and arrived in CO fired up. Our friends - JonnyP and JPotts - we were excited to hang with you and experience these awesome shows. But THIS night, July 28, was the Apex - perhaps of my entire journey on the bus. Up super close (3rd row center or something like that) - pouring rain the entire first set ("if your see us disappear in a shower of sparks") - then the sublime second set. Can't describe it much better than JonnyP - it was mystical. Althea - wait what? Let it Grow - wait what? - another reviewer described as "world-ending"? Yes, it was all that. I was never the same after this show - fully committed to the bus and will always celebrate July 28 as one of my holidays!

I have been on an ‘82 Let It Grow binge. Love jerry’s tone and how bouncy the solos are. This let it grow, is not the best i’ve heard (my favorite so far being 5-23) but it is still very good.

The mystic Red Rocks, venue of legend, this run carried three of the five greatest nights the Band thundered up there Rocky Mountain High.

All three nights are awesome, but this is the best of the trio.

And such an epic weekend: The Jack Kerouac event in Boulder brought all of the old crew!!!
Family, like Kesey and numerous Pranksters, John Perry Barlow, Mountain Girl, Wavy Gravy,
And everyone else too: Abbie Hoffman, Timothy Leary, Alan Ginsberg, William Burroughs, Gregory Corso Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Michael McClure, Anne Waldman, Carolyn Cassady, Jan Kerouac, Edie Kerouac, Robert Creeley, Diane di Prima, Peter Orlovsky, Paul Krassner, and many more

http://brianhassett.com/2013/06/who-all-was-there-boulder-82/#more-3128

The rain was so heavy 1st set, they had to squeege the water off the stage.
2nd set, sky cleared, moon rose, and we all rose up to the sky in utter ecstacy!!!!
I was on the largest dose of ... I had ever done, 5 tabs, ( one or less was my usual) so would have been awesome no matter what, but objectively too, one of the great shows of the decade.

Contrary to reviewer below, I am sure it was Weir who pulled the NFA rather than Stephen. Just listen, you will hear him do it.
I heard he said later they just were not ready for it, was totally unplanned.

Still the NFA was amazing, a few seconds of damn, where did Stephan go- and then tidal wave of love and and check the Peter after, not usually my fav, but so mournful and sweet that night.

Six stars.

Alas, SBD has not much Garcia, lots of Brent and Weir and Lesh, however.

Just listen to the beginning of the Shakedown. LOLz all over the place.

This show is just tremendous, every song is fantastic. They were right there the whole show from a masterpiece Shakedown all the way to Baby Blue. When I feel down I listen to this show and it always brings a smile to my face.

Gosh I wonder if I met any of these other posters who were also at the show? We sat in the middle of the middle and the fungus amongus musta done something to my memory because, in addition to watching the boulders melt, I also remember the tunes as pretty mellow. Today I learned that just isn't true! I can not believe how fast the music is goin on this, you know like radio stations do to speed things up -- is this just me or is it Memorex?

This was a fun show with a not so funny Stephen tease.

Capn D is correct, f-ing World-ending Let It Grow here, this and 8-7-82 are my favorites of the '80s. Are '78 and '82 THE years for LIG or what?!

A great audience recording too! I am so used to the crummy auds of the '60s/'70s that I sometime forget how amazing and listenable these '80s auds sound.

Highly recommended show.

Tapers are so cool!

Ahhhh, the sweet sound of Red Rocks. What an amphitheater! I suppose the place is music's equivalent of baseball's Fenway or Wrigley. Every music fan should attend a concert there to truly appreciate its ambience.

Jim Wise nailed this show with a very lively and rich recording af a great performance. The Shakedown, Althea, and St Stephen tease are especially cool. Jerry is THE MAN on Let it Grow...verrrrry intense. It is cool to hear his uptight taper friend bitching at Jim for raising the levels, however, the recording is not distorted at all. I am going to listen to the other shows in this run. Enjoy!

Jon wrote "If you were there, you know what I mean!"
Yup, I was standing next to you!

And oh Lordy, about as 'high' as I ever got at a show, in terms of Lady Lucy~500mcg perhaps, 5x what i usually deployed~ hence melting glowing soaring, ah!

To name the best show I ever saw, quality and personal experience, this was it- out of about 100 in total, from 1979-1992

Jon says it well. Few more thoughts:
Monster Shakedown to open, in the downpour.
The L.S.D. jam to close the 1st set, and there was real lightning in the sky.
Man Smart, Women Smarter was dance dance dance
A 2nd set Althea was intense, even the idea of it. LET IT GROW was off the charts intensity
Surprise and delight that after the long pretty post "He's Gone" jam ( check garcia's wailing vocals too) there was yet another song- Truckin'
Thundering...
After Garcia left the stage, still more jamming- it went on and on, this set.
The Lost Spanish Bolero jam out of the space, sooo trippy.
The thrill, then sadness at St Stephen not emerging was quickly forgotten in the monster NOT FADE AWAY. Garcia screaming the lyrics, and so true, our love affair with this band, and their's for us, would never fade.

Best Black Peter i ever heard live-unlike so many nights when it was perfunctory.
Perfect Sugar Magnolia. And sweet Baby Blue.
2nd night of the run, still had one more to go.
But first the post show afterglow at Chief Hosa campgrounds.

For this night, we were almost first in line, and back then they let you in early in the day. We were 2d row dead center this nite. It started raining in the middle of the day and the rain continued all the way through the first set, complete with thunder and lightning. The crew had to continuosly squeegee the stage. Bobby says "Don't be surprised if you see us go up in a shower of sparks" at one point. But these shows were rain or shine. They were not going to have a repeat of '79 where they cancelled the 2d and 3rd nites and moved them indoors. They were hell bent on playing right through the deluge. After a smoking hot first set - from Shakedown through Lazy/Supp/Deal - oh yeah, there was a lot of trippin going down all around us - Bobby announced, "We're gonna make a phone call and see if we can get this rain to stop" or something to that effect.
It stopped raining during the set break and steam and fog rolled into the amphitheatre. If you have ever seen U2 Live At Red Rocks - filmed the next summer from there- you will have an idea of what it looked like inside the amphitheatre and the smokin' hot 2d set began. I never heard a hotter or tighter Women Are Smarter and to open the set was refreshing. A very good Althea followed. Then came the onslaught - Let It Grow - a rarity in that portion of the show in those days - was played at a super uptempo pace and Jerry - who was so on for these 3 nites - totally nailed it. The crowd went nuts during the post-lyric key of D instrumental jam. Listen to Jerry wail and cry out in a fury of passion. Our minds were already blown for the nite right then and there. The post-drums portion of the show picked up the same intensity - starting with the St. Stephen tease out of space (it really was just a Not Fade Away intro but the same E/D/A chord progression as St. Stephen made everyone hysterical with hope!)into the tightest Not Fade Away - fully played out with 3 verses and ending jam. The show ended with one of the most on fire Sugar Mags of all time - with Bobby really going for it - spitting all over us up front. Hell we were already soaked from 8 straight hours of rain at that point - we were happy to receive it. This show is very underrated and a memorable experience for all the reasons I laid out in this recount. If you were there, you know what I mean!
Not a bad recall from 28 years ago!

Does anyone know how the other guy's tape turned out?

All three nights are good music and good recordings. A jammin' LIG ta boot.

i like the following night better, but this show is good, too, and has better balance among the instruments. check out bobby's alternate lyrics about sweet jane's sex change(!?) in truckin', and the excellent space>st stephen jam. i love hearing the audience at this show.

As I said before FOB is the only way to pull this kind of quality from RR well worth the DL if you are into collecting aud's.

Wise, that'll teach ya to fuckin touch another tapers levels....Level Toucher. ha ha love that, glad it wasn't edited.

4 Stars for recording quality.

I actually enjoy the banter before Shakedown begins; it gives me a real feel for being there, at the circus, a scene I miss so much...Anyhow, Red Rocks is probably the greatest venue anywhere to see a concert -- the sound bounces off the walls to perfection. Accordingly, the sound on this audience recording is fantastic. The Band was in fine form, great energy, great set lists, great show. Definite Downloads for all three nights of this run --- you won't be sorry. But just remember, don't touch my fuckin' levels, Man!!! Peace Out.

How many 10 song first sets have you ever seen chock full of so many banging long tunes like Shakedown, Big RR***, ***TLEO+, and they could have closed this set with Deal and no one would have noticed but it follows a slamming Lazy lightning>Supp. Listen to Jer's rifs on Big RR and a rare set II Let it Grow (which gets my vote as one of the 3 best of the 80's along with Binghampton the following year). Bobby is awesome in NFA and Black Peter is not a let down they actually pull that out at some of the best shows I have ever seen or heard.

My only objection to this is the colorful chat that the tape opens with about levels what a pain in the ass it was people stepping on cables, screaming into mikes, etc. I also think this may be their first foray out judging by what they say....

Lastly rain has always been a really positive omen for shows (really) check out Merriwether from the next year 6/20/83 it pissed and they ripped the cover off the ball (here it's 4 stars and easily one of the best of the 70+ I have seen).

This show should be listed among the top 10 of all time for its energy, the perfection of its venue, the tireless effort it always seems to take to get to Red Rocks in lil'old Morrison, and of course, the rain that washed us all pure for a few hours at least. All of the long strange trip capped off w/ the most life-like St Stephen tease of all time... it was all just a dream we dreamed one afternoon. (how could one have been there and not picked up on it?...the place was going nuts and the whole band had the biggest sh--eating grins you'll ever see until JG literally turned his back and transitioned to Not Fade Away; incidentally, when he turned to face the crowd again, he was screaming at the top of his weary lungs, "I'm gonna tell you how it's gonna be! You're gonna give your love to me! I'm gonna love you night and day! You know our love will not fade away". The poignancy of the the moment was inescapable...and no matter how cynically you can view a mushroomed-out crowd listening to a multi-million dollar musical entity, there was a close band-relating-to-fans, fans-embracing-artists relationship there. Our love will not fade away.) The show had incredible flow - even the ordinary was extraordinary - note the bluesy down-home feel of He's Gone prior to the break. It all worked for the band that night, and that all works for me.

What a hot Garcia Jam on Shakedown and always love this Althea. What beatiful venue to see the Dead a ampitheatre up in the mountains of CO. Heads kickin it in Red Rocks, I've seen pictures of various Heads hanging out up there before show time wow what a sight, Tell me that wasn't the place to be in that Jul. of 82.

I read all the reviews and then gave the tease of the year a taste....not since i was a school boy has something teased me so in the right spot. DAMN IT! That just had such a perfect sound to it....and then...and then....and then...why they had to do that.

OK. Yeah this was a fun show in a smoking year of great Dead. But there are teases and then there are really fucking evil teases (I mean that in a good way). As they came out of space and just before NFA the boys play around with Stephen for about a minute. Listen to it. I was not alone when I started freaking out and jumping around. Half of Red Rocks (the back ý ) was a blaze at the thought. There was Stephen in the jam the previous night and we all discussed it. Then to play around the edges that closeàthey almost fell into it. Phil, Billy and Brent were all smiles and ready to go but Jerry and Bobby weren't ready. I guess they need another year to GET IT RIGHT. IÃÂm not complaining just remembering. LOL

This is a very good crowd tape, not quite as good as the day before from "the mouth of the stage". The tapes starts with some serious stressing amoung the tapers. The show is very good too. Lots of first set energy, Sugaree is really fun, and there's some first set tunes showing up in the second set, most notably Althea. He's Gone is really wonderful. The placement of Not Fade before Black Peter is cool too.

Another great show at Red Rocks. It rained all three nights, which made getting tickets after the trip across the country, easy and cheap. Awesome Let It Grow and a great jangly sound (Bob & Brent's piano)throughout. I haven't heard this source yet, but its a great show.
Addition:
Now that I've heard the source, it is the one I had on tape for 20 yrs. I prefer it to others I've heard, but that could be my familiarity with its sound. The First set starts a little rough, both in sound and in the tapers threatening each other, its funny. I never had the audience copy of the first set, just a dropout infested soundboard copy.
Great first set and the jam after drums is excellent, with hints of St. Stephen that I didn't pick up on while in attendance. And what could be more fun than razzing Bobby for forgetting the words to Truckin. I wish whoever edited this had left the comment by Bobby during the pause before Althea, "This is the annual Red Rocks rain out....except we're still here." You can imagine the response that got, all missing:(
Again, a great show with a little different sound. One of my favorites.

Although I had a very unfortunate personal mishap, from instead of doing what my own sence told me giving in to the miscalculation of someone less experienced, yet I don't hold it against him; the band was great ! I saw them when they played in '79, but were forced to move to McNichols, however this time we all hung in there bravely.
In contrast to what others have said, I recall plenty of folks looking for tickets. And/or trying to smuggle themselves in some cases, up the hill in the trunk or whatever of another's, (w/ tics) vehicle, past the cops checkpoints at the bottom. Despite my not following my own good judgement; I felt thankful I came with tickets, boots, a jacket, and cash enough to get back to L.A. and school in Santa Barbara !

Great shows, cheap & easy tix...
..Lazy, Supplication, Deal....(Pharoahs).. say no more